From the English fourth division to the Belgian top flight, Max Dean is unfazed by most challenges thrown at him.
He was raised in Ormskirk, a quiet market town 10 miles north of Liverpool and only a 30-minute drive to Everton’s Goodison Park, the team Dean supported and played for 11 years when growing up.
His journey as a player for the Toffees ended abruptly at the age of 16 when he was let go, although his love for the club remained strong, with the striker in the crowd for the 2023-24 Merseyside Derby win at Goodison Park.
At Everton he was competing with the likes of Lewis Dobbin and others from the year above but when he wasn’t deterred by an emotional rejection.
Leeds United were interested in the Englishman and despite missing two first-half penalties in his trial against Sheffield United, the two goals he scored after the break interested Leeds enough for them to give him a contract.
His arrival to Leeds’ youth team was just after they made their return to the Premier League, after 16 years away in 2020, under the much-adored Marcelo Bielsa and thanks to the Argentinian’s training methods, Dean had the opportunity to work under him and train with the first team.
Dean said: “Working under him and Mark Jackson (under-23s’ coach) was so good for me. You have seen how many people he has influenced in the game.
“I have taken little details from him in my game whether it be the different runs I make or the work rate or just a certain type of five-yard pass.
“He treated everybody the same, he was very strict but no one was different from the under-23s to the first team. He knew what he wanted and everyone respected that.
“The respect he had from the fans and players made you sure you were on it every day, he didn’t have to say anything, just him being there made you know you had to give everything but that was the type of person he was.”
But again he faced a similar story of being unable to get game time and this is when Dean made his first vital jump.
He left Leeds in December 2023 and joined up with Jackson, his former coach at the Yorkshire club, who was embarking on his first senior management role at MK Dons.
It was a risk to leave the cushy life of a Premier League academy and join a club that were deep in a relegation battle under a relatively inexperienced manager, but Dean didn’t see it that way.
He said; “I have got a great support system with my family and agent who help a lot. I just thought: ‘Why not, what is the worst that can happen?’
“If it goes badly, you just move on to the next, so I feel like you have only got one career and it is a short career, so you need to make as many memories and take as many risks as you can.”
And to start off with, it looked like it was going to be a difficult move because five months into his first taste of professional football, Jackson was sacked and MK Dons were relegated.
Dean said; “I had six months left on my deal, so I needed to get out in January because I didn’t want to wait until the summer because it would have been a wasted six months in the under-23s.
“Obviously Mark Jackson was a big reason I went there but I was 18 and I just had to get out there.
“I learnt a lot from the relegation. I think I played nine times off the bench and it only helped me. I built up resilience and I was out playing professional football.”
These moments have all played a part in where Dean is today. After a stellar season in League Two, in which a play-off heartbreak was the only dent, the Englishman moved from the fourth division of English football to the top division of the Belgian league.
The destination was KAA Gent, a side that regularly battles at the top of the Pro League and lifted the title nine years ago and that prestige and reality quickly hit Dean, as he made his debut against Toby Alderweireld and Antwerp.
Dean said: “At MK, I loved my time there but I felt like a kid on and off the pitch still, so coming here has changed that.
“I have lived alone since I was 18, so that was never something that would faze me moving abroad, but, even with the little stuff, you have to adapt and as soon as I knew the move was happening I got myself in a mindset where I was expecting the worst.
“But when I got here, I realised it was a very similar country and the people are very welcoming, it worked perfectly.
“The facilities here and the staff we have are top but every game is tough, the league is so tight, so you look at it and in two games your position can completely change, so I think the competitiveness helps.
“The opponents are tough, Alderweireld still has all the quality and you are just trying to understand how he plays to try and get past players like him in the future.
“Within the group here there are lots of different nationalities and languages but I am only 20, but it will feel good to grow up a bit.”
And it is not just as a young adult pathing his way through life where he has developed, as a footballer Dean has shown he can stand among the best in Belgian.
His 16 goals in League Two as a 19-year-old were impressive but now he has 13 goals in 30 appearances in Europe and domestically.
But despite scoring at a regular rate in the Pro League and the Europa Conference League, his name is relatively unknown in his homeland, which he believes will help him reach high levels.
Dean said: “One of the reasons for the move was to just get away and have full focus on the football. When I am here there are no distractions and I can do what is best for my career.
“I am open to anything and I have proved that by coming out here. I am happy, really happy here and I am not going to strike myself to England.
“Even if (moving abroad) doesn’t go well, you have given it a go and that is a lot more than most English players can say.
“You learn so much from it with different cultures and learning about different people from different parts of the world.
“And on the pitch, there are different styles, so it is only going to help your game if you do want to go back to England.
“I obviously miss my friends and family more often but that’s what I signed up for.”
The cover image for this post was sourced from Wikimedia Commons under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International licence
(https://www.flickr.com/photos/yellowbookltd/51877428133 & https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ghelamco_Arena_panorama_indoor..jpg), and is attributed to the author, Gunther Vermeulen & John Lord It was retrieved by me on the 5th January 2025.
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